Soccer season finale
Mount Si must beat
Bellevue to make playoffs.
Page 14

Block heads
Opstad Elementary School
team builds Lego robots.
Page 16

Prsrt Std
U.S. Postage
PAID
Kent, WA
Permit No. 71
POSTAL
CUSTOMER

A North
Bend doctor
has joined
scores of
medical professionals
journeying to
Libya to provide care for
people caught Ashok Shroff
up in fighting
between the
country’s dictator, Muammar
Qaddafi, and rebels.
Dr. Ashok Shroff is part of a
mission organized by Doctors
Without Borders’ Belgian chapter. The anesthesiologist is delivering critical items in short supply, such as medical supplies,
drugs and water purification
equipment.
In Libya, he is primarily caring for children and pregnant
women at a hospital being run
with help from Doctors Without
Borders in the coastal city of
Misrata. The two groups have
received scant medical attention
since the conflict began, Shroff
said in an email to the Star.
He is helping improve working conditions for medical staff
members.
“The equipment that is present in the operating rooms has
not been maintained for quite
some time, probably due to the
See LIBYA, Page 2

By Dan Catchpole

Rescue readiness
Brian Jarvis (right) double checks equipment with a fellow Eastside Fire & Rescue firefighter while practicing swift-water rescue techniques on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. Jarvis crossed the river
with a Stokes basket, which can be used to transport injured victims. EFR performs about six river
rescues a year, according to Mark Vetter, an EFR firefighter.

Dispute delays FEMA housing grants
By Dan Catchpole
On Jan. 7, 2009, Lois
Nicholas came home from an
event at Snoqualmie Methodist
Church and found a note on
her door: She had an hour to
evacuate her home.
The Snoqualmie River was
quickly rising and threatening

to flood the area.
The 85-year-old woman
moves deliberately with a cane.
She and her live-in caregiver
rounded up their cat and three
lap dogs, and left for North
Bend, where Nicholas’ son
lives.
The river rose, inundating
her home on Southeast

Northern Street with 18 inches
of flood water.
“The refrigerator in our
garage almost floated out the
door,” Nicholas said.
It was three months before
she could move back into her
home.
See DELAY, Page 3

Keeping the children safe
Sgt. Mark Toner, of the King County Sheriff’s Office, chats with children at last year’s Safety Fair, sponsored by Sno-Valley Indoor
Playground. This year’s fair is from 9:30-11:30 a.m. May 20, Si View
Community Center, 400 Orchard Drive, North Bend. Local firefighters
and police officers will share safety tips at the free event. The first 80
children 5 or younger will receive a free bike helmet. All children will
have a chance to sit in an operating fire truck used by Eastside Fire
& Rescue, which provides fire services for North Bend and surrounding King County. Sno-Valley Indoor Playground is a nonprofit, parentrun organization that runs a playground for children 5 and younger at
the community center during the school year. Call 831-7808 or go to
www.snovalleyindoorplayground.org for more information.
Contributed

SnoValley Star

PAGE 2

Libya

would-be kidnappers.
Fighting has caused heavy
casualties since neither side has
a strategic advantage. Rebels
have high morale but are largely
untrained, disorganized and lack
heavy weapons. Pro-Qaddafi

forces lost much of their technical superiority after strikes by
NATO forces destroyed or scattered their air forces.
Qaddafi has vowed not to
give up power, despite losing
family members in NATO

attacks.
“We will see what mood
Qaddafi is in after the airstrike
which killed one of his sons!”
Shroff said.
Two of the dictator’s grandchildren also died in the attack.
NATO officials said their forces
had gone after a military target
and not his family.
Shroff has been in chaotic situations before, including previous missions with Doctors
Without Borders. In 2010, he
joined a team organized by
Medical Teams International to
deliver care to victims of the 7.0
earthquake that hit Haiti. Before
moving to the U.S., he served as
a doctor with the Indian Army’s
paratroopers.
Shroff brings medical expertise and a knack for improvisation to disaster areas.
He is “a MacGyver type,”
Linda Ranz, executive director
for Medical Teams International,
said last year.
Disaster areas are by definition already bad situations, but
they are also usually unstable,

Among
Jenkins’
biggest roles
could be
ensuring the
tribe gets
good interest
rates when
the casino’s
debt is refinanced in
coming years.

Jenkins has more than 30
years of experience in the gaming industry, according to a
news release from the casino.
Most recently, he worked at
Casino Arizona and Talking
Stick Resort, where he spent
nearly 14 years as its president
and CEO.
Much of his career has been
spent with tribal-run entities.
Jenkins also has experience with

the industry’s marketing and
hospitality sides.
In his new role, Jenkins will
be responsible for setting the
strategic direction for all gaming
operations, and representing the
gaming operations to customers,
employees, government agencies, tribal leadership, and
financial and business communities.
Jenkins takes over following

From Page 1
current situation as well as
chronic neglect of this region by
deliberate policy from the previous regime,” he writes on his
blog from Misrata.
Misrata has seen especially
heavy fighting between rebels
and pro-Qaddafi forces during
the past month. Both sides want
to control the city’s oil terminal
and the steady revenue stream it
produces.
Shelling and missile strikes
occur frequently, but most are in
the far distance, according to
Shroff. The city’s oil refinery has
been burning since artillery fire
hit it May 7.
For now, Shroff’s life is one of
delivering care and preparing for
the worst. Even when sleeping,
he and team members always
carry their passports, mission
orders in Arabic and $100 in
case they must evacuate. The
money can also be used to pay

Snoqualmie Casino’s
new CEO could play big
role in refinancing
its existing debt
Snoqualmie Casino has a new
boss.
Jon Jenkins has taken over as
CEO of the casino, which is
owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe.
Jenkins began his new job in
April.

MAY 12, 2011

By Ashok Shroff

Smoke from an explosion fills the sky above Misrata, Libya, where Dr.
Ashok Shroff, of North Bend, is providing medical care to civilians.

Jon Jenkins

and can get worse.
Shroff was reminded of that
last year in Haiti, when a major
aftershock damaged the building
where he was staying. In Libya,
the conflict is far from resolved.
With critical supplies in short
supply or nonexistent, improvising is a necessity. In Haiti, Shroff
used duct tape to keep needles
for IV drips in patients’ arms.
To reach Misrata, he had to
take a 12-hour trip on a fishing
boat from Malta, an island in
the Mediterranean that is popular with tourists.
“I see lots of them wandering
around, young children, young
men and women seemingly
blithely unaware or unconcerned with what’s happening
across the water — seems surreal!” Shroff wrote in his email.
When asked last year why he
went to Haiti, Shroff didn’t hesitate in answering — “It’s just
basic humanity to go help.”
Dan Catchpole: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

the tribe’s hasty buyout of his
predecessor, Mike Barozzi. The
Snoqualmie Tribal Council
caught many tribal members off
guard when it voted in February
to buyout Barozzi’s contract for
$14 million.
A key job for Jenkins will be
securing good interest rates
when the casino refinances its
$330 million in debt in 2013
and 2014.

Delay
From Page 1
She still lives in the same
house, about 100 yards from
the river.
Nicholas applied for and was
approved in 2010 by
Snoqualmie for a home elevation that would be paid for by a
hazard mitigation grant from
the Federal Emergency
Management Administration.
In March, she and a couple
of dozen other households in
Snoqualmie received letters
from the city saying that their
home elevations would be
delayed.
The cause of the holdup is a
dispute between Washington
state and the city of
Snoqualmie about documentation of costs.
The state’s Emergency
Management Division could
hold up nearly $4 million in
two federal grants for home
elevations in Snoqualmie. It
has stopped payment on
$229,624 from one grant that
the city has already spent, and
it could delay payment of a
second grant worth about
$2.75 million.
The money comes from the
FEMA Hazard Mitigation
Grant Program, but it is dispersed by the state. The
money becomes available after
the president declares a natural disaster, and local jurisdictions then apply for grants.
Their applications must be
endorsed by the state, after
which they are sent to the federal government.
FEMA then reviews the applications and makes awards to
the state to give to approved
local jurisdictions. The state
then draws up a contract
between it and the local jurisdiction, which spells out the
reimbursement process, timeline and scope of the work, and
budget.
The dispute in Snoqualmie is
over what records are needed to
document contractors’ costs.
Beginning in August 2009,
Mark Stewart, one of the state’s
Hazard Mitigation Grant
Program managers, became
increasingly concerned that the
documents provided by
Snoqualmie did not adequately
justify the costs.
Costs have to be documented

in case of an audit by the federal or state government.
Stewart’s concerns are driven
by one question: “Can they
account for all their costs?”
In May 2010, Stewart
stopped payment on a reimbursement request until
Snoqualmie provided better
documentation of contractors’
costs.
In a letter in early March to
the city, Stewart said, “…a pattern emerges that demonstrates
a lack of city involvement in
the oversight of the project and
its financial management as
required by the grant agreements, federal regulations and
mitigation program guidance.”
“The city’s lack of oversight
and management of these projects is not acceptable,” he
wrote.
Stewart explicitly said that
completed work was not being
questioned, simply that the
paperwork to document the
costs was incomplete.
It is not the first time the
city of Snoqualmie has been
called out by a state agency for
weak financial oversight. In
November 2010, the state
Auditor’s Office issued a report
that found the city had not
adequately reviewed billing by
consultants, which resulted in
overcharges to some
Snoqualmie Ridge developers.
There is no connection
between the two, City Attorney
Pat Anderson said. But the city
is having internal discussions
about how to bolster its financial oversight procedures.
The problem arose because
the state changed the rules part
way through the game,
Anderson said in letter to
FEMA in late March. “The ‘lack

PAGE 3

King County
streamlines permit

By Dan Catchpole

Lois Nicholas is waiting for the state and city of Snoqualmie to resolve
a dispute over paperwork so her home can be elevated. In 2009, it
was inundated with 18 inches of flood water.
of documentation’ only is a
problem due to [Emergency
Management Division’s]
changing views as to what it
‘needs’ to authorize reimbursement to the city.”
Since 1996, Snoqualmie has
used the same method for documenting costs for reimbursement, which had been
approved by Stewart’s predecessor, according to Anderson.
But Stewart said that he has
communicated the needs for
greater documentation since he
first started working with the
city on FEMA grants in 2009.
He has been with the
Emergency Management
Division since December 2006.
It isn’t unusual to require
more documentation with mitigation grants, but Snoqualmie’s
pushback was surprising,
Stewart said.
It was the first time he had

WOMEN UNDER STRESS
Coping Skills for Survival in Today’s Busy World

ever asked FEMA to delay
awarding a grant, though.
FEMA administrators
declined requests from the city
and the state to get involved in
the dispute.
Both sides say they want to
meet to find a solution to the
problem, but no meeting has
been set.
The state isn’t interested in
punishing anyone, Stewart said.
He just wants to make sure it is
clear how tax money is spent.
“Can we resolve it?” he
asked. “Certainly.”
The city and state will have
to agree on exactly what documentation is required.
How long that will take and
how it will delay the current
grant is unclear.
Dan Catchpole: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com. Comment at
www.snovalleystar.com.

King County’s Department of
Development and Environmental
Services has added a pre-submittal
review service for complex permit
applications. The new service is
part of the county’s efforts to
make it easier to apply for permits in unincorporated areas.
The service allows customers
to enter more complex applications into a new program called
Pre-Submittal Services. It is
meant to help people with permit applications that are too
complicated for over-the-counter
service but not so involved that
they require — or qualify for —
a pre-application meeting.
The new system is intended to
provide feedback by identifying
technical issues or red flags early
on, and set expectations for the
permit process, according to a
news release from King County.
This early feedback should
reduce the time required for permit application review by DDES
staff, according to the release.
“It should speed up review
times, improve communication
with our customers and enable
applicants to start their projects
sooner,” DDES Director John
Starbard said in the release.
The new service is expected to
help with 12 types of mid-sized
permit applications, including
new dwellings, agricultural
buildings, signs, tenant improvements, small commercial buildings, grading and boundary line
adjustments. There is an upfront $357 fee for using the system. The cost will be credited to
the final cost of the application.
The service is available from 9
a.m. to noon and 1-3 p.m. weekdays. Get hours and the location
of the DDES at
www.kingcounty.gov/permits.

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One person can have a deep effect on smaller communities, such as Snoqualmie Valley. This verdant valley is
saying goodbye to two longtime fixtures — Ruth
Tolmasoff, executive director of Mt. Si Senior Center, and
Randy Taylor, principal of Mount Si High School.
Finding their successors will not be easy, and will
require serious attention to what attributes are needed to
fill the empty positions so vital to this area.
Tolmasoff and Taylor will leave behind them lasting
legacies.
Under Tolmasoff, Mt. Si Senior Center has flourished. It
has rebuilt after flooding, added services and continues to
support a thriving community of the Valley’s older residents.
Her combination of an indefatigable spirit, affable personality, creative mind and willingness to slog through
hours of details for grant applications are rarely seen in
one person.
Ruth, you leave big shoes to fill.
The center’s board of directors should not simply wait
for applications to come in, but go out and seek candidates capable of carrying on the center’s mission.
Taylor has overseen great growth at Mount Si High
School, but his legacy is not so clear cut.
During his tenure, he pushed to increase academic and
other learning opportunities available to Mount Si students. There are now twice as many Advanced Placement
courses as when he began six years ago.
He encouraged an exchange-student program with
Gangjin, Korea, and helped establish partnerships with
local universities by offering college courses at Mount Si.
But at the same time, the school has been plagued by
bigotry and bullying by some students. The school’s
administration failed to act quickly and openly to address
these problems.
Taylor’s successor must address these problems, and
continue his work to foster a school that challenges all its
students, not simply the brightest ones.

WEEKLY POLL
The Mount Si Wildcats baseball team starts
postseason play May 12. How far will the team go?
A. Win the state championship
B. Win the district championship
C. Win the KingCo Conference
D. Lose in the KingCo Conference
Vote online at www.snovalleystar.com.

Last week, I attended the
Snoqualmie Planning
Commission meeting about
annexation of the old
Weyerhaeuser mill site, and
addressed the group, as did 15 or
so others. I spoke about the negative effects of the DirtFish Rally
School and the slimy process the
city and county have gone
through to allow it to continue.
Toward the end of the public

From the Web
Re: Letters to the editor
Snoqualmie residents need to
understand that not all of us
think alike and that’s why we
complain and others think it
amounts to whining.
My family relocated here six
years ago as an internal corporate relocate. Assigned a buyer’s
agent with patience, my wife

MAY 12, 2011
input period, Mayor Matt Larson
turned to the commission members and essentially said “Some of
you commission members are
new and don’t know, but only
people with a complaint show up
to comment at these meetings.”
This comment flies in the
face of the fact that about onefourth of the people who commented were in support of the
annexation. In just a sentence or
two, his comment attempted to
invalidate the opinions of all the
people who expressed concerns
at the noise DirtFish creates.
It also told the other commission members that despite their
purpose to review documents,

listen to the public, weigh
options and make their own
sound judgments in the best
interests of the community, he
knows better and they should
disregard what we said.
Wow! Why have public comments or even public meetings,
Mayor Larson? Despite Larson’s
advice to the contrary, the commission members were obviously thoughtful and attentive.
Since there will be a couple of
more opportunities to comment
on annexation of the old mill,
keep an eye on the public notice
section of your local paper.
Dave Eiffert
Snoqualmie

and I covered the entire greater
Seattle area in our desire to find
the perfect place to call home.
After some initial searching we
really decided between two
extremes. We’d either be city
“mice” or country “mice.”
Once we found Snoqualmie,
the decision was easy. We’d be
country “mice.”
But after six years, our country is changing. It’s becoming
another Issaquah. Many of us
decided to drive the extra 10-15

miles during commutes not to
live in Issaquah. But thanks to
our mayor and those residents
who for whatever reason want a
bigger city, which they equate to
progress, they are changing our
quiet, small, easy-going town
into the next Issaquah. Then
comes Bellevue. Then we might
all as well live in Seattle.
My wife and I are here for
another four years, for another
See WEB, Page 6

Home Country

Little things are the important ones
By Slim Randles
Sometimes, it’s the little things
that make all the difference.
Without the little things, we
might sail through life boringly
and vanish in a vanilla haze.
Just take Saturday morning at
the Mule Barn truck stop. There
we were making certain no sudden wind would blow our chairs
away from the philosophy
counter, when Bert walked in
wearing that shirt. It was a
Western shirt, which is certainly
not out of place in this rural
area, but we all knew the only
thing Bert knew about horses
was how many he had under
the hood of his sedan.
“Look at this!” said Dud.
“Pretty fancy shirt,” Doc said.
“Got pants to go with it, too,”
Bert said. “Striped ones. You
know, gambler pants. And
boots. I don’t wear them here,
though. Just to go dancing.”
“Dancing, eh?”
“Maizie’s idea. She said we
weren’t getting any younger and
needed exercise and we should
scoot our boots and all that.
They give lessons Tuesday at the
high school.”
“Country dancing?”
“You bet. Boot scootin’ and
everything. I know how to do
the Texas two-step.”
We looked at Bert, with 40

years’ worth
of eating regular meals
hanging over
his belt.
“Hey, I can
dance, and I
can prove it!”
“OK,
Slim Randles
Hon!” yelled
Columnist
our waitress,
Loretta, dropping a quarter in the jukebox.
“Let’s you and me dance and
we’ll show ‘em.”
So he grabbed Loretta and the
two of them did a pretty good
little two-step right there during
the breakfast rush. There was
great cheering as they did their
little whirl in, whirl out and

clomp, clomp, clomp. Many of
the people in there were clapping to the music. So was that
salesman from the capitol until
Bert decided to give Loretta a
quick spin and she sat in his
scrambled eggs.
So what otherwise would’ve
been just a routine truck stop
dance got etched deeply in our
local lore because of the scrambled eggs. The salesman had
already eaten the hash browns
and bacon. They made it right
with him, of course.
Sometimes, it’s the little stuff
that sticks with us.
Brought to you by Slim’s new book, “A
Cowboy’s Guide to Growing Up Right.” Learn
more at www.nmsantos.com/Slim/Slim.html.

Write to us
Snovalley Star welcomes letters to the editor about
any subject, although we reserve the right to edit for space,
length, potential libel, clarity or political relevance. Letters
addressing local news will receive priority. Please limit letters
to 350 words or less and type them, if possible. Email is preferred. Letters must be signed and have a daytime phone
number to verify authorship. Send them by Friday of each
week to:

County issues warning
about Hepatitis A cases
children, King County epidemiologist Tao Kwan-Gett wrote in
an email.
People working with nonhuman primates susceptible to the
illness are also at risk, Kwan-Gett
wrote.
High-risk areas for hepatitis A
include Mexico, Central and
South America, Greenland,
Africa, and southern and southeastern Asia, according to a map
from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Symptoms include yellowing of
the skin and eyes, fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Young children sometimes show mild symptoms or no symptoms at all,
Kwan-Gett wrote, adding that parents sometimes don’t realize a
child is infected until a relative
gets the disease from the child.
“As long as everyone in the
family is healthy, parents don’t
need to worry if their children
don’t have any symptoms,” he
wrote.
Nevertheless, children without symptoms can still transmit
the disease.
“Almost everyone who is infected gets better on their own without any lasting effects,” Kwan-Gett
wrote. “Rarely, however, the virus
can cause severe liver damage
requiring hospitalization, sometimes even a liver transplant.”
People in the Valley without
a health care provider or health
insurance and who are at higher
risk for hepatitis A should call
the county’s public health
department at 206-297-4774,
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday
through Friday.

By Sebastian Moraga
An outbreak of Hepatitis A in
the Snoqualmie Valley has county health authorities asking people to get vaccinated.
Matias Valenzuela, public
education coordinator with the
county’s public health department, said his office has
responded to six confirmed cases
in the Valley, all in adults.
The nonlethal virus spreads
easily, Valenzuela said in a press
release, and it can spread
through close contact with a
person with hepatitis A.
The illness can spread when
an infected person does not
wash hands adequately after
using the toilet and has close
contact with others, or prepares
food or drinks for others.
It cannot spread through
coughing, sneezing or casual
contact.
Valenzuela recommended
vaccination for all children up
to age 18. Adults at increased
risk should also get vaccinated,
as well as anyone who wants
protection against the disease.
High-risk adults include drug
users, gay men, bisexual men,
people with chronic liver disease, people who travel to countries with high hepatitis A rates
and people with clotting factor
disorders, such as hemophilia.
The vaccination should occur
in two doses at least six months
apart, for the best protection,
Valenzuela stated.
The vaccine provides protection for at least 25 years in
adults and at least 14-20 years in

MAY 12, 2011

Outreach structure for
unincorporated areas
could receive overhaul
King County’s outreach
structure for its unincorporated areas could be getting
overhauled.
King County Executive
Dow Constantine has proposed reforming and
expanding the existing structure to improve engagement
with residents in unincorporated areas. The
Metropolitan King County
Council requested the
reforms last fall as part of
the county’s budget.
Under the proposal, unincorporated King County
would be divided into community service areas, which
would serve residents as a
single point of contact for
county services. Teams of
existing staff members
would work with the service
areas to improve public outreach.
The proposal would not
eliminate existing unincorporated area councils or community service centers, which
provide remote access to
county services.
King County serves as the
local government for about
284,000 residents living in
unincorporated areas outside
the boundaries of the 39 local
cities. About 15,000 residents
live in unincorporated areas
in the upper Snoqualmie
Valley.
Constantine’s administration will work on drawing
boundaries for the proposed
service areas in the coming
months. The final proposal
will be sent to the County

Council in September along
with Constantine’s proposed 2012 budget, according to a news release from
his office.

Residents can apply to
run for county board
King County residents can
apply to run for a seat on the
county Personnel Board, the
group responsible for conducting hearings on appeals
to certain county personnel
actions.
The candidate-filing period
for the election is May 9-13 at
the King County Elections
office, 9010 E. Marginal Way
S., Tukwila. The race has a $5
filing fee.
The county charter requires
the elected representative on
the Personnel Board to be a
Washington resident and to
not be a King County
employee.
The primary election to
determine the nominees for
the board election is June 7.
The all-mail board election is
June 28. Only career service
King County employees —
about 12,500 people — can
cast ballots.
If a candidate receives
more than 50 percent of the
vote in the primary, he or
she is elected and no further election must be conducted.
The board consists of five
members — four appointees
and one member elected by
county employees — serving
five-year terms.
Call Clerk of the Board of
Appeals Dave Goff at 206296-3496 to learn more about
the election or for more information.

North Bend councilman
won’t seek re-election
North Bend City Councilman
Chris Garcia has announced that
he will not run for re-election
after his term expires Dec. 31.
He also said he will not run
for the city’s mayoral office.
Garcia has spent several years
in city government, including a
previous six-year stint on the
City Council before being
appointed to his current seat in
December 2009.
On the council, Garcia often
raises pointed questions about proposals, especially when the city is
being asked to spend money.
He has lived in the Snoqualmie
Valley for much of his life. He
owns a Frankie’s Pizza and Pasta
franchise in North Bend.
Six of the seven City
Council members and North
Bend Mayor Ken Hearing will
be up for re-election on the
November ballot. The only
council member who will not
be up for re-election is Alan
Gothelf.

Web
From Page 4
mayor’s term to see what happens (or doesn’t). Then the new
empty industrial park, the training track turned racing venue,
force-fed YMCA that puts local
health clubs out of business and
City Hall that goes unused while
our elected officials meet at the
Salish will be too much for us
and we’ll move — to downtown
Seattle, Oregon or Alaska. But
we sure will miss the old
Snoqualmie we fell in love with.
Bob Keller
Snoqualmie

Ciscoe Morris will be at
Grange Supply to answer your
gardening questions.

*Sale prices not valid with any other
discounts, promotions, or coupons.

Veggies are a great topic right now.

Grange Supply is Now Carrying
Diamond Naturals
Dog & Cat Food

For more details, go to
www.grangesupply.com

40 # Beef and Rice $29.99
Wheat – Corn – Soy Free
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425-392-6469

www.grangesupply.com

MAY 12, 2011

SnoValley Star

PAGE 7

SnoValley Star

PAGE 8

Police & Fire
Snoqualmie police
It was just hungry

plaint. Police found a bunch of
teenagers with flashlights playing tag. Police asked the children to be quieter.

It’s just lunch

At 12:42 a.m. April 29, someone alerted police that a large
bear was headed toward the golf
course on Snoqualmie Ridge.
Officers did not locate the bear.
Then, at 2:22 a.m., another
caller reported a bear in his
trashcan in the 34000 block of
Southeast Rhododendron Drive.
The bear took some trash and
headed toward Douglas Avenue.

At 1:11 p.m. May 4, police
responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle with two males
in it near the intersection of
Snoqualmie Parkway and
Douglas Avenue Southeast.
Caller told police the vehicle
had been seen at another location previously. It turned out to
be a painting contractor eating
lunch.

Door broken

North Bend Police

At 4:45 a.m. April 29, police
went to a business in the 7000
block of Center Boulevard
Southeast, where a glass door
had been broken. Nobody had
entered the place, and nothing
had been taken or disturbed.

Stolen bike

You must stop
At 6:50 a.m. April 28, police
approached a driver near the
intersection of Fairway Avenue
and Kinsey Streets because she
had failed to stop at a school
bus paddle. She said it was
because her children distracted
her. Police let her off with a
warning.

You’re it
At 10:40 p.m. April 30, police
went to a park in the 6600 block
of Azalea Way Southeast,
responding to a noise com-

Around 7 p.m. April 26, a
Schwinn bicycle was taken from
outside the North Bend Library.
The bicycle, a 21-speed mountain bike was leaning in the
stand outside the library, not
locked, when an unknown suspect took it.

Recharge results in
arrest
At 10:40 p.m. April 29, police
saw two white males putting
something behind the garbage
can at a Shell gas station near
the corner of North Bend Way
and Ballarat Avenue. The two
juveniles were actually plugging
their phones into an outside
outlet. One of them had a
felony warrant for his arrest and
was taken to the King County
Jail. The second male was
released at the scene.

No Ace Hardware for you
At 5:30 p.m. April 30, police
went to the Ace Hardware in the
300 block of Main Avenue
South. An employee there waited for police while standing in
front of an unoccupied vehicle
with the keys locked inside.
Police recognized the vehicle as
belonging to a suspect. The
employee told police the suspect
is at the store every day and he
suspects him of stealing items,
although no police reports have
been filed. The employee told
police he wanted the man
banned from the store but did
not want to press charges. Police
drove to the 300 block of East
Second Street to find the man.
Once contacted, the man
became very upset, saying he
had not stolen anything. Police
advised the man that he was
banned from the store. The man
said he understood that the next
time he entered the store, he
was subject to arrest.

Snoqualmie fire
❑ At 8 a.m. April 29, firefighters responded to Sequoia Avenue
for a woman with a nosebleed.
❑ At 4:22 p.m. April 30, EMTs
responded to Snoqualmie
Casino for a medical call. A
patient was treated and then
transported to a hospital by a
private ambulance.
❑ At 8:25 p.m. April 30, EMTs
were dispatched to Snoqualmie
Casino for a medical call. A
patient was evaluated and then
transported to a hospital by private ambulance.

MAY 12, 2011
❑ At 12:11 p.m. May 2, EMTs
and Bellevue paramedics were
dispatched to Mount Si High
School for a medical call. A
patient was evaluated and then
transported to a hospital by private ambulance.
❑ At 4:01 p.m. May 2, firefighters responded to
Snoqualmie Ridge for a residential automatic fire alarm. After
an investigation, firefighters
determined that it had been a
false alarm.
❑ At 8:30 a.m. May 3, EMTs
responded to Spruce Place
Southeast for a 36-year-old
female with a medical problem.
She was evaluated and transported to a hospital by private
ambulance.
❑ At 9:30 a.m. May 4, EMTs
responded to Mount Si High
School for a 15-year-old male
with a broken arm. His arm was
put in a splint and he was transported by private ambulance to
a hospital.
❑ At 1:07 p.m. May 4, EMTs
responded to the Snoqualmie
Ridge Kidney Center for an 88year-old woman with a medical
issue. She was evaluated and
taken to a hospital by private
ambulance.
❑ At 8:01 p.m. May 4, EMTs
and Bellevue paramedics were
dispatched to Snoqualmie Valley
Hospital for a patient with
severe injuries from a prior traffic accident. The patient was
treated and transported to the
trauma center by the medics.

North Bend fire
❑ At 5:47 a.m. May 9, fire-

Valley Scout troop
named best in district
The Snoqualmie Valley’s
Boy Scouts Troop 466 has
been named the Alpine
District Troop of the Year.
The honor was given at an
awards ceremony April 30.
Several of the troop’s adult
leaders also received honors
at the ceremony. Joel Yoker
was named as the Venture
Crew Advisor of the Year, and
Kelly Luna and Christine
Nelson received Extra Mile
awards for their volunteer
work with the troop.
The Alpine District has 24
Boy Scout troops, 33 Cub
Scout packs, 11 Venturing
crews, 10 Varsity teams and
one Sea Scouts ship. Its territory includes Snoqualmie, North
Bend, Fall City, Issaquah,
Sammamish, and parts of
Renton and Newcastle.
fighters responded to a residential structure fire on 436th
Avenue Southeast north of
Interstate 90’s Exit 32. The firefighters were supported by
Eastside Fire & Rescue units
from Issaquah and Sammamish.
❑ At 6:06 a.m. May 10, firefighters responded to a multiplevehicle accident near Interstate
90’s Exit 25. The firefighters
were supported by Eastside Fire
& Rescue units from Issaquah.
SnoValley Star publishes names of those
arrested for DUI and those charged with felony
crimes. Information comes directly from local
police reports.

SnoValley Star

MAY 12, 2011

County shifts agencies to
biennial budgeting

Nominate eco-friendly
workplaces for award

Like the state and some
municipal governments, the
King County Council has taken
a step to shift the county to a
biennial, or two-year, budgeting
process.
Officials said the shift to biennial budgeting extends the planning period for county departments to further examine and
define budgets.
The longer timeframe also
allows the executive and council
to improve program evaluation,
enhance performance management and encapsulate cost-savings during the budget process.
The council unanimously
adopted legislation to set the
schedule for county agencies to
transition to a biennial budgeting process. The Department of
Development and
Environmental Services, the
county permitting agency, is on
track to join the Department of
Transportation in delivering a
biennial budget for the 2012-13
cycle.
Voters approved a county
charter amendment in 2003 to
allow leaders to shift all county
departments to biennial budgeting. The council adopted the
timeline for adoption Feb. 28.
Leaders expect all nongeneral
fund budgets to transition to
biennial budgeting for 2013, and
all county agencies should deliver biennial budgets for the 2015
King County budget. The spending plan should be adopted in
fall 2014.

The county Solid Waste
Division is seeking businesses for
the Best Workplaces for
Recycling and Waste Reduction
list.
The honor spotlights businesses for strong recycling, reuse
and waste-prevention efforts.
“Businesses of all types may
be surprised how easy it is to
improve their recycling habits,
and how much they can cut
costs in doing so,” Solid Waste
Division Program Manager
Karen May said. “The wide array
of businesses in King County
that make up this list prove that
anyone can help the environment in their work setting.”
The contest is open to all
King County businesses outside
Seattle. The county announces

Can’t get
enough
Eastside
news?

the honorees in June.
The county recognized the
Issaquah municipal government,
the Issaquah School District and
Issaquah businesses Pogacha,
Rowley Properties and Timber
Ridge at Talus as Best
Workplaces for Recycling and
Waste Reduction last year.
The nomination deadline is
May 27. Find the application and
guidelines at the division website,
http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/garbage-recycling/apply-bestworkplaces.asp. Contact May at
206-296-4353 or
karen.may@kingcounty.gov to
learn more.

County offers mice
reduction plan — cats
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Regional Animal Services of
King County is offering feral or
semitame cats for free adoption
to rural residents who need help
with rodent control.
Rodents can cause human
and animal health problems. On
farms and ranches, they can
contaminate livestock feeding,
and their droppings are unsanitary.
They can also cause damage
from chewing. In 2010, Equine
Escapes, a horse guiding company near Snoqualmie, lost two
horses in a barn fire that county
fire investigators suspect had
been caused by a rodent chewing through an electrical wire.
For all of the problems
rodents cause, methods for controlling them, like traps and poison, can create additional problems for humans, pets and other
wildlife.

Regional Animal Services has
barn cats available for adoption
at its shelter in Kent. The cats
only need a sheltered place to
sleep, fresh water and food to
supplement their haul of rodents.
The cats keep low profiles,
only leaving an occasional dead
rodent behind, Glynis
Frederiksen, operations manager
for the shelter, said in a news
release.
The cats are placed typically
in groups of four. All of the cats
have been spayed or neutered,
vaccinated, ear-tipped for identification and have been tested for
feline diseases. Volunteers can
deliver and help place them.
There is no charge for adoption.
Get more information about
the barn cat program by emailing barncatsrus@gmail.com or
calling 206-296-7387.

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PAGE 10

MAY 12, 2011

Pageant streak ends
for Snoqualmie teen
By Sebastian Moraga
Karley MacMillan was 4 when
she competed in her first
pageant. She’s 13 now.
She had won many trophies,
but never the big one. She had
been most photogenic, most
beautiful, most this, most that,
but she had never won a
pageant in almost 10 years.
On April 19, that all changed.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget
how that felt. I felt so proud of
myself, so accomplished,” she
said. “I finally won.”
MacMillan, a student at
Snoqualmie Middle School, won
the All-American Girl pageant’s
state competition at Everett’s
Holiday Inn, snapping a streak
that had frustrated but never rattled her.
Even after years of close calls,
she went into the contest quietly confident. Near the end, she
began picturing herself as the
winner.
“Seriously, I couldn’t picture
anyone else, not to be snotty or
anything, I just wanted it so
bad,” she said.
Girls in the contest compete
on different levels according to
age. MacMillan defeated six
other girls in the Young Miss

ON THE WEB

>>

www.allamericangirlpageant.com

category, the middle category
out of seven.
She had to answer questions
about her future, her likes and
dislikes, perform a dance number, and put on a formal dress
and a casual dress.
“It’s not about beauty, per
se,” said Lisa Tribble,
MacMillan’s mother. “It’s a
scholarship program, a youthdevelopment program, so they
are looking for a girl who’s confident onstage, can speak well
with others and interact well
with others.”
Judges also watched how the
contestants interacted with
younger girls at functions during
the weekend.
“All-American Girl doesn’t
want a girl who acts like a
woman when she’s only a
young lady,” Tribble said.
MacMillan likes pageants and
wants to compete in them for as
long as she can, but she said she
does not see herself going into
Miss America-style competitions.
She wants to be a pediatric nurse
or a dancer — dancer because

By Sebastian Moraga

A woman looks at artwork by Valley artists during the fourth annual Mount Si Artist Guild.

Mount Si Artist Guild brings
color to North Bend Library

See PAGEANT, Page 11
By Sebastian Moraga

Contributed

Karley MacMillan, 13, was recently crowned winner of the state’s AllAmerican Girl contest. MacMillan will represent the state in the Young
Miss division of the national competition.

Some of the best art in the
Valley has found a spring
home at the North Bend
Library.
The Mount Si Artist Guild is
hosting an exhibit this month
at the library, showing pieces
that include inks, watercolors,
collages, acrylics and oils.
“It’s a beautiful opportunity
to use the library as a source for
the community to be able to
come,” the guild’s Eileen
Erickson said. “There are so
many artists in this area, it’s
overwhelming to me, to see
how they’re coming out of the
woodwork, so to speak, and
being able to display what they
have.”
This is the exhibit’s fourth
year.
The artists, who went
beyond the canvas-worthy
landscapes of the Valley to
depict scenes from Africa and
Europe, bring plenty of expertise to the walls of the library,
Erickson said.
Erickson and Audrey Zeder
teach watercolor at the Mount
Si Senior Center.
Marcia Tuttle teaches at the
Encompass preschool. Sandy
Robinson held a class on
sketching and drawing May 7.
All four have pieces in the
exhibit.

By Sebastian Moraga

Robinson’s work, ‘Green Eggs No Ham,’ joins others in the fourth
annual Mount Si Artist Guild.
A newcomer to the guild,
Tami Donnelly also has pieces
in the exhibit this year, an
acrylic painting of koi and
another of a deer.
Donnelly said the guild
artists themselves chose
which pieces to display at the
exhibit.
Every piece at the guild’s
exhibit is for sale, but not at
the library. The artists’ names
and contact information appear
next to the piece, but prices
don’t.
“The library exhibition is not

a sale,” Erickson said.
Only works by guild members, including Erickson’s,
hang from the walls. For the
second year in a row, a ballot
box for visitors to choose a
favorite hangs from the walls,
too.
“It makes people stop and
look, take a little time,” Zeder
said of the ballot box.
At 11:30 a.m. May 21, the
artists featured will stop by the
library to talk about their art
See ART, Page 12

SnoValley Star

MAY 12, 2011

Obituary
John ‘Neil’ Provo
John
“Neil” Provo,
of Redmond,
passed away
Monday, May
2, 2011, at
Evergreen
Hospice in
Kirkland. He
was 70.
John was
born Sept. 26, John Provo
1940, in Seattle, to Lillian and
Isaac Provo. He was raised in
North Bend, where he attended
Mount Si High School.
Neil entered the United States
Navy at age 17. He served his
country during Vietnam and

retired from the Navy in 1970.
Following his call to service,
Neil furthered his education at
then-Bellevue Community
College.
On March 28, 1969, Neil married his longtime friend Gail
Lewis in Reno, Nev. They have
since divorced, but remained
best of friends. Having joined
the Navy to see the world, Neil
spent his retirement years traveling around the United States in
his motor home, visiting his
many friends.
He was a member of the
Disabled American Veterans,
Veterans of Foreign Wars and
the BPOE. His favorite membership was Costco, where he spent
countless hours shopping for
friends and family!
John is remembered by his
family as a loving and generous
father, grandfather and friend.

He was also a lover of animals
and spent hours enjoying and
spoiling his cats. He was very
patriotic and had a wonderful
sense of humor. He will be
greatly missed.
Survivors include his loving
children Neil Provo and Ti
Refvem, of Redmond; and sister
Faye Jones, of Sweet Home, Ore.
He was preceded in death by his
daughter Donna Provo and nine
of his siblings.
A funeral service was May 7 at
Flintoft’s Funeral Home in
Issaquah. A graveside service was
May 9 at Mount Si Cemetery in
North Bend.
Arrangements were entrusted
to Flintoft’s Funeral Home and
Crematory, 392-6444.
Friends are invited to view
photos and share memories in
the family’s online guest book at
www.flintofts.com.

PAGE 11

Relay for Life events
are set through July
Relay for Life organizers will
host an all-middle-school,
fundraising dance at
Snoqualmie Middle School at 7
p.m. May 20. Tickets are $5.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June
4 and 5, the Key Club will hold
a garage sale at CTT
Destinations, 8429 Falls Ave.
S.E., Snoqualmie.
Lastly, Relay for Life is selling entertainment coupon
books for $20. The coupons

carry discounts and deals for
local businesses and Seattlearea attractions.
Learn more about the books
and all of these events by emailing Lisa Newell, head of the
Snoqualmie Valley Relay for
Life, at newellvl@yahoo.com.
Relay for Life has been
scheduled for July 9 and 10 at
Centennial Fields in
Snoqualmie. The opening ceremony begins at 2 p.m.

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From Page 10
she loves it and a pediatric nurse
because of health troubles she
had as a toddler.
“She had open-heart surgery,”
Tribble said.
The experience with those
nurses wasn’t the best,
MacMillan said.
Now, that same heart will
carry this memory for a long
time. And if she ever needs help
remembering, there’s the crown,
the scepter and the huge purple

robe. The pageant’s tradition
suggests that the queen must
sleep in the robe the first night
of her reign, for good luck.
“It’s. Really. Warm,”
MacMillan said, emphasizing
every word.
She also won a photo shoot,
a trip and a savings bond for
college. The pageant will also
pay for her entry fees at nationals in Oregon this summer.
One of her duties is to participate in a walk for autism
awareness.
“That’s kind of personal to
me,” MacMillan said. “My 4year-old brother is autistic.”
Although she’s new at win-

ning it all, MacMillan had
already competed in nationals
last year as an at-large entry and
finished third.
Now, she will compete as
bonafide royalty, much to the
delight of her mother and their
friends.
“We have worked so hard and
everybody has loved Karley and
watched her grow up, and they
are always saying, ‘This is going
to be Karley’s year.’ It never has
been,” Tribble said. “Now, it
finally happened.”

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Crop Walk enters 12th
year of fighting hunger
By Sebastian Moraga
In a way, every mile of the
CROP Hunger Walk is golden.
People stroll to raise money
to combat hunger and poverty.
And every bit helps.
About $150 can buy wire and
100 chicks. About $500 can
help repair a water well.
This year, some of the miles
really are golden.
Those who are a little older
or a little too young — think
strollers — may take a different
route from the walk’s 3-mile
path around downtown
Snoqualmie and still help.
This path is a mile long and
it’s called “the golden mile.”
Golden or otherwise, this
year’s CROP Hunger Walk
begins at 12:30 p.m. May 15.
Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic
Church is its start and finish,
rain or shine, said Kathy Golic,
a youth leader with the church

and one of the organizers of the
walk.
CROP stands for
Communities Responding to
Overcome Poverty.
Three-fourths of the money
raised in the Valley’s walk will
go toward Church World
Service, an ecumenical nonprofit organization founded 65
years ago that trains people in
at-risk areas to handle disaster
before it strikes.
According to www.churchworldservice.org more than 2
million people participate in
CROP Hunger walks worldwide,
raising more than $16 million.
The remaining one-fourth of
the money raised will go to the
Mount Si Helping Hand Food
Bank in North Bend.
Organizations involved in
the walk worldwide include the
American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee, the
Baptist World Alliance, the

Chamber needs
help filling new
downtown space

Contributed

Participants in the 2010 Crop Hunger Walk pass Saint Clare of Assisi
Episcopal Church in Snoqualmie.
Cooperative of Baptist Fellows
and the Mennonite church.
In the Valley, four churches
organize the walk: Our Lady of
Sorrows, the Snoqualmie United
Methodist Church, Saint Clare
of Assisi Episcopal Church and
Mount Si Lutheran Church.
The first-ever CROP hunger
walk was in Louisiana in 1969.
More than 1,600 CROP Hunger
walks occur each year in the
United States, according to

Church World Service’s website.
“All these organizations are
trying to eradicate hunger and
promote peace and justice,”
Golic said.
She added that people seek
sponsors or they may sponsor
themselves prior to the walk.
Some donors might designate
certain gifts to other hungerfighting agencies, she added,
but it can only be to agencies
approved by the walk.
“What we don’t want is for
people to stand out there and
pretend they collect for the
CROP hunger walk and keep
the money,” Golic said. “It has
not happened here but it happened back East.”
A potluck at Our Lady of
Sorrows will follow the walk.

In early May, the Snoqualmie
Valley Chamber of Commerce
moved from a cramped, secondstory office on Falls Avenue into
the historic brick building at the
intersection of Falls Avenue and
River Street.
The building has been a
bank, city planning offices and
City Hall. Now, it will be a place
to introduce visitors to the
Valley.
But the chamber needs help
filling the space. It is soliciting
donations of the following
items:
❑ Magazine rack
❑ Cubicle panels
❑ Two computer monitor
stands
❑ Three or four blue recycle
bins (for under a desk)
❑ Two medium or large white
boards
❑ Storage shelves, a cabinet
or both
❑ Two waiting-area chairs
❑ Waiting-area end table
❑ Outdoor café table
❑ Three or four large art
easels
❑ Plastic activity table for
children
❑ Large indoor plants or trees
(real or artificial)
❑ Small conference table with
four to six chairs
Email Cheryl Fulton at director@snovalley.org or call 8886363 to donate items.

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From Page 10
and technique for an hour,
Erickson said.
Besides the exhibit at the
library, artists have found a
niche at the Mount Si Senior
Center.
Earl Finch will show his work
this spring and Michael
McDeavitt will follow this summer. Later this year, a threegeneration exhibit of Ila Lamb,
her daughter Celia and her
granddaughter Julia will be featured.
“It’s one of the reasons I keep
teaching,” Zeder said of having
three generations of painters
attend her class at the senior
center.
The exhibit, Zeder added, is
fun and all local.
“It has something for everyone,” she said. “Children would
enjoy it. Adults would enjoy
it.”
Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or
smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at
www.snovalleystar.com.

SnoValley Star

MAY 12, 2011

PAGE 13

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Sports

PAGE 14

MAY 12, 2011

Mount Si tennis doubles pair splits
up their time until postseason
By Sebastian Moraga
The road to doubles greatness
in tennis is a single-lane highway for the Mount Si Wildcats.
The team’s top doubles players hope for a repeat of their
great 2010 run at districts, and
yet, they have competed a great
deal in singles lately.

“They’ve played singles and
they’ve played doubles,” head
coach Eric Hanson said. “But
we’re sort gearing up for them
to go to the KingCo tournament, and they did well last
year. We’re just hoping they can
repeat.”
Bailey Barnard, who teamed
up with Shelby Thomas, said on

By Sebastian Moraga

Bailey Barnard, playing in a recent singles match, wants to repeat the
team’s performance in doubles last year alongside Shelby Thomas.

April 21 that the strategy will
pay off.
“We work better with our
own strategies,” she said. “I’m
good at net, she’s good at baseline, so we both just kind of
decided to play singles for the
next couple of rounds. Next
week, we’ll play doubles.”
Barnard’s aggressiveness coupled with Thomas’ groundstrokes made for an exciting tandem, and they made it to the
third round at the KingCo conference last year.
Barnard and Thomas have
known each other since the
sixth grade; now they are both
seniors.
And yet they did not discover
they could play doubles well
together until last year.
“It kind of was sprung upon
us,” Barnard said.
That is not totally unusual for
Mount Si players. Unlike their
neighboring rivals, Mount Si
players tend to first pick up a
racket in ninth grade. Players
from places like Mercer Island
play from grade school on, and
year round.
In 2010, Thomas was the top
ranked player and Barnard was
No. 4. The two seniors in

Wildcat soccer team fights adversity,
but loses in first round of playoffs
By Sebastian Moraga
At the beginning, adversity.
An own goal left Mount Si
behind 1-0 against Mercer
Island, 13 minutes into their
May 6 match.
At the end, adversity.
A penalty kick called in favor
of the Islanders with three minutes to go in the first overtime
threatened to break what was up
to that point a tense 2-2 tie.
Both times, Mount Si
responded.
It retorted to the own goal
with two goals by Dane Aldrich.
And it retorted to the penalty
kick call by salvaging the tie,
using a maneuver worthy of the
pros.
It started with head coach
Darren Brown calling Dillon
Oord, the senior goalie to the
sideline.
“Coach Brown said, ‘Just
come on over, let this guy (the
Mercer Island player) look at the
goal and think about it, game’s
on the line,’” Oord said.

Then, an assistant referee told
Oord to get his braided mane in
check.
Lastly, Oord stopped to chat
some more with a teammate for
a second or two. Only then did
he get under the three tubes.
The kick was low and to the
right. So was Oord’s dive. Draw

“We’re playing as a unit
again.”
— Dillon Oord
Goalie
preserved, loss averted.
The tie gave Mount Si a ministreak of two games unbeaten
entering the playoffs.
“We’re playing as a unit
again,” Oord said.
Aldrich agreed, saying the
team had worked harder than it
had coming into the last two
matches of the season.
The tie also gave the team a
measure of revenge against a
Mercer Island team that had not

only beaten the Wildcats 3-1
early in the season but also
taunted them during the
Wildcats’ game against Bellevue
on May 2.
“They were all like, ‘We’re
going to kick you guys’ ass on
Friday,’” Oord said. “That gave
us some extra fire going into
tonight.”
The Wildcats qualified as a
lower seed than they hoped for
at the beginning of the season,
but Brown predicted the team
would be ready.
“We did some things tonight
that are very, very positive going
into the playoffs,” he said, mentioning the rally from 1-0 down
to take a 2-1 lead. “We’re hungry
and we’ll be ready for Lake Dub.”
In spite of their efforts, the
Wildcats were not in the playoffs for long. They lost in overtime 2-1 against Lake
Washington May 9.
“It was an honor this season
to coach such a great group,”
Brown said on the team’s website.

By Sebastian Moraga

Shelby Thomas, a talented singles player, has found some of the greatest success in the tennis team’s history doubling up with Bailey Barnard.
between wanted to play singles,
so Barnard and Thomas got
paired.
“Then, we just rocked it,”
Barnard said.
No Mount Si doubles team
had ever advanced as far as they
did in KingCo.
Personalities meshing is just
as important as games meshing,
Hanson said, so their friendship
helps.
This year, Barnard plays it
close to the vest. State is the
obvious goal, but the girls keep
any boast to themselves.
“That would be awesome,”
she said. “But we tend to lose to

the worse teams, because we
psyche ourselves out and when
we play the good teams, we just
play. If we play our game, we
can definitely achieve it.”
One of their opponents this
year has been close to unbeatable and unavoidable: rain.
“We have only had five outside practices,” Barnard said.
“That has hurt us.”
Conversely, practicing inside
has had its advantages.
“Hitting against a wall, you
get a pace that’s a lot faster,” she
said. “So, when we play the
faster teams, I think we’ll be
ready.”

New course records
are set in Snoqualmie
Valley half-marathon
June and July. The Cinco de
Mayo race is the only one in
Snoqualmie’s second annuthe upper Snoqualmie Valley.
al Cinco de Mayo halfSteve DeKoker, of Seattle,
marathon had new course
broke away from the halfrecords set for the men’s and
marathon’s lead pack to estabwomen’s divisions.
lish a commanding lead. The
More than 1,000 runners
30-year-old cruised across the
came out for
finish line at
On the Web:
the halfMount Si
marathon, 8K
❑ Run Snoqualmie
High School
and Kid’s 1www.runsnoqualmie.com
in 1 hour, 9
Mile races,
❑ Snoqualmie Valley Cup
minutes, 2
despite chilly
www.refweb.org/duvallseconds. He
weather.
run_snoqual_cup.htm
broke the
Nearly 500
course record
runners finished the May 7
of 1:10:58 by nearly two minhalf-marathon. More than 350 utes. That record was set in
runners finished the 8K. In all, the race’s inaugural running
1,048 people participated in
in 2010 by Phil Olson, of
the races.
Montlake Terrace.
The race kicked off the
In the women’s division,
annual Snoqualmie Valley
Sayaka Yoshinaga, of Seattle,
Cup, which with the addition
set a new course record when
of the Cinco de Mayo 8K now
includes four races in May,
See RUN, Page 15
By Dan Catchpole

SnoValley Star

MAY 12, 2011

PAGE 15

Registration extended for
martial arts tournament

Everest dispatch:

The deadline to register for a local
martial arts tournament to raise
money for wounded members of the
U.S. Armed Forces has been extended
to May 14.
The Eric Ward Memorial
Tournament runs from 2 to 7 p.m.
May 14, at Mount Si High School.
The tournament will be open to
anyone age 13 or older, but minors
will need consent from a parent or
guardian. There are no restrictions on
martial arts discipline. Wrestlers and
boxers are welcome as well.
Get information or register at
www.nas-da.com.

Return to base camp
By Dennis Broadwell
Snoqualmie residents
Dennis Broadwell and Brian
Dickinson are climbing
Mount Everest, the tallest
peak on earth.
Broadwell owns Mountain
Gurus, a climbing guide service; Dickinson is trying to
climb the highest peak on
each continent.
Broadwell is filing regular
dispatches from the trip.
These have been abridged for
the SnoValley Star. Follow
him online at
mountaingurus.blogspot.com.
April 19
After reaching the top of
Island Peak we rappelled
down the headwall and
descended the route. I was
drained and immediately
crashed in our tent at high
camp.
After lunch we walk back
to the village of Chhukhung.
I gladly let Naga, my head
trekking guide, carry my
pack. I went to sleep early
and awoke feeling much
more rested. I think with all
of our long days trekking at
high altitude my body needs
rest.
In Dingboche we said
goodbye to our Mountain
Gurus trekkers. It’s been a real
pleasure spending the past
three weeks getting to know
everyone. They will be back in
Kathmandu within a few days
enjoying pizza, beer and hot
showers, quickly forgetting
the rugged mountain life
they’re leaving behind.
As for Brian, Pasang Temba
and I, we’re off to Pheriche.
We’ll spend the next two days

Run
From Page 14
she finished in 1:19:44. She finished 20th overall. Like
DeKoker, she had established a
commanding half-mile lead on
her closest competitor, Milah
Frownfelter.
The 27-year-old Yoshinaga
broke the existing course record
by four minutes, 39 seconds.
The previous record was set last
year by Frownfelter, of Seattle.
The 33-year-old broke her own
course time this year, finishing
in 1:22:44.
Brian Carroll, of Sammamish,
won the 8K, finishing in 29:54.
In the women’s division,
Anita Behrbaum, of Auburn,
took first place. The 46-year-old
finished in 33:32. She finished

catching up on some muchneeded rest before heading
back to Everest Base Camp to
begin our climb.
Again I bump into some
old guide friends at the lodge.
It’s fun to reminisce about
past days climbing on Mount
Rainier together. They say you
can never get the mountain
out of the man, and despite
pursuing other careers and
ambitions, these guys, like
me, all have found their way
back to mountain guiding.
It’s an unspoken brotherhood — the mountains have
a way of shaping and transforming you unlike anything
else I’ve ever experienced. My
second day in Pheriche, I
take a 10-minute hot shower
with very low water pressure
and put back on my dirty
trekking clothes, although it’s
still nice to feel somewhat
clean again.
I catch up on email, which
I hope to upload as we pass
the 3G tower in Gorak Shep
tomorrow. I think about my
wife and boys, and hope to
call them tomorrow as well.
It’s difficult being away from
them so long.
We’re all disappointed
about not having 3G Internet
access at Everest Base Camp. It
was the big hype before arriving here. It will just mean I’ll
need to hike down to Gorka
Shep every week to update

Contributed

Tents are set up at Mount Everest Base Camp.
you all.
April 20
I’m back at Everest Base
Camp. I felt a little worn
walking into camp, but after a
few hours of rest and relaxation I started to feel upbeat
again. Living at 17,600 feet is
a real shock to the body.
Everything takes longer to do
… the lack of appetite and
slow physical recovery is all
part of living in this harsh
environment.
Brian decides he will go to
Camp 1 tomorrow with
Pasang Temba. As for me, I
will spend another day getting
over my Khumbu cough and
just relaxing. We enjoy a nice
dinner and turn up the dining
tent heater.
Veronique Dennys, a
French Canadian climber, is
sharing Base Camp with us.
Like Brian, she’s working on
climbing the Seven Summits.
The next morning I wake
to a beautiful day. The sun is
shining, and I have Base
Camp mostly to myself. I
think this is the first time I’ve
been sort of alone in three

21st overall. In 2009, she finished in third place in the standings for the Snoqualmie Valley
Cup.
Stephanie Harner, of
Carnation, finished second in
34:20. She beat her course
record, set last year when she
finished second as well.
The top local finisher was
Holly Cleveland, of Snoqualmie.
She finished in 38:22. Not far
behind her was Chantal
LeBlanc, of Snoqualmie, who
finished in 38:32.
The top local finisher for the
men’s 8K was Dave LaTourette,
of North Bend. He finished sixth
overall in 32:05.
For the half-marathon, the
top local finishers were Ben
Houlridge, of North Bend, for
men and Sommer Reynolds, of
Snoqualmie, for women. The
17-year-old Houlridge finished

weeks.
The warm sun fills the dining tent; spring is finally coming to the Khumbu. The
mountains look spectacular.
The sound of helicopters
fills the air all morning, dropping off supplies and ferrying
off sick climbers.
As for me, I feel great. I
think all of our work acclimatizing is starting to really payoff. I feel much more rested,
and my cough is beginning to
subside. If all is well, I plan to
go to Camp 1 tomorrow.
Ngawang Lakpa, one of
our climbing Sherpas, has
carried loads to Camps 1 and
2 on Everest, while we were
away climbing Island Peak.
He has six summits of Everest
from the South Side. Between
him and Pasang Temba, we
have two excellent and very
experienced climbing
Sherpas. Dawa, our Camp 2
cook, will help carry loads as
needed. Once again,
Mountain Gurus logistics
guys have put together a
great team.
Now, all we need to do is
climb the mountain.

Snoqualmie Valley
Cup races
❑ Duvall Runs 5K/10K,
June 5
❑ Carnation Run for the
Pies 5K, July 4
❑ Fall City Days Runs
5K/10K, June 19
38th overall in 1:27:44.
Reynolds finished 46th overall
in 1:30:24. She beat her course
record set last year by more
than a minute.
Lance Logan, of Duvall,
launched his 2011 campaign for
the Snoqualmie Valley Cup with
a strong performance. The 46year-old finished the 8K in third
place with 30:25. He finished
second last year in the final cup
standings and in third place in
2009.

Wildcats fastpitch squad
wins six straight games
in season’s second half
Mount Si High School’s fastpitch
squad improved its record to 11-5
after a six-game winning streak, that
included taking both games of an
April 26 doubleheader against
Sammamish.
The team finished the regular season 11-7 after dropping games to
Bellevue and Juanita.
Before it’s six-game run, the
Wildcats had been on a three-game
losing skid.
Lauren Padilla pitched a complete
game against Interlake on April 21 for
the win.
In that game, Jenny Carroll, Lauren
Smith, Maura Murphy and Rachel
Picchena all had RBIs.
The day before, Murphy and
Picchena led the charge against
Liberty. Murphy had three hits,
including a solo home run, and
scored two runs. Picchena had two
RBIs.
Against Sammamish, Mount Si
took two games with a combined
score of 34-6.
The Wildcats won the first game,
24-2. The offensive display included
home runs by Carly Weidenbach and
Smith. Weidenbach had five runs batted in. Kendra Lee picked up the win.
Mount Si won the second game,
10-4. Padilla got the win.

Not far behind him, William
Waters, of Bothell, finished the
8K in 15th place with a time of
32:55. In last year’s cup standings, the 61-year-old came in
third place.
For the 1-mile run, the top
finisher younger than 13 was
Sarah Christopherson, of
Snoqualmie. She finished in
7:03. The fastest time for boys
younger than 13 was Cooper
Arons, of Snoqualmie. Arons finished in 7:30. His older brother,
Spencer, trailed him by only
four seconds.
While the races went off
smoothly, that wasn’t always a
sure thing.
Looking at weather reports for
race day, organizer Sean
Sundwall was concerned.
“I was a little nervous about
the weather, but runners around
here are diehards,” he said.

“This is the weather we run in
more often than not, so the
weather really wasn’t a factor.”
Slightly more runners came
out this year than last year.
Sundwall said he hopes the race
doesn’t get too crowded.
“I want people to have an
identity in this event and not
just be a number, which is actually a hint at one of the little
upgrades I am planning for next
year,” he said.
That could mean runners will
have their names on their bibs
rather than an assigned number.
Sundwall also said that the
children’s run could be shortened next year.
The next local race is Duvall
Runs 5K/10K on June 5.
Dan Catchpole: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

Schools

PAGE 16

MAY 12, 2011

Lego loving students rule the afternoon at Opstad Elementary
By Sebastian Moraga
The robots look so good,
work so well, move so smooth.
What else can a bright-eyed
grade-schooler wish for?
He or she can wish a classmate hurried while building his
or her robot, so they can wrestle.
“I’m going to put stingers on
it to attack and claws to
defend,” said Jack Carter, a
grade-schooler at Opstad
Elementary School and a member of OtterBots, the school’s
Lego robot building club.
Nevermind the hours spent
building the robot with wheels,
gears, motors and software commands. As Nancy Sinatra would
say if she liked Lego robots,
these ‘bots are made for
wrestling.
“I want to win,” Carter said.
“I want to make this thing a
champ.”
Carter’s sibling Michael listens and smiles. These two have
a score to settle, or rather, their
robots do. The last time
Michael’s robot wrestled Jack’s,
Michael’s robot’s claw fell off.
The retelling of the story makes
Jack smile.
“It’s not going to happen
next time,” Michael said.
The robots wrestle on a white
board with a black edge. As long
as the robot senses white, it

By Sebastian Moraga

Jack Carter preps his robot for an as yet unscheduled showdown with his brother Michael’s toy.
keeps moving forward. Once the
robots’ sensor senses the black
border, it realizes it’s gone too

far and returns to the center.
The children aren’t just learning how to thrash each other’s

Teacher readies to rock
in an unusual setting
first performance in front of
pupils and peers.
A seasoned performer, Diana
“This will clinch it,” she said,
Young-Blanchard does not get
adding that the performance
rattled when the music starts.
might increase her credentials
But this time is different. The
among students.
audience will look familiar and
It’s not a coincidence that the
that’s a bit scary.
concert is on Friday the 13th.
Young-Blanchard, vocalist for
The club wanted a date that was
the hard-soul
easy to rememband The DTs,
ber. Doors open
IF YOU GO
will perform at
at 7 p.m.
the Mount Si
Rock For Talk
Tickets are $7
High School
Mount Si High School
in advance or
auditorium
Auditorium
$10 at the door.
with her group
7:30 p.m. May 13
Mount Si
as part of a
Tickets: $7 in advance,
High School
Rock for Talk
$10 at the door
student and
fundraiser for
Wildcat Idol
the school’s
veteran Chase
speech and debate club.
Rabideau will also perform.
Young-Blanchard is a teacher
Young-Blanchard said she was
at Mount Si and the advisor of
happy to have Rabideau on the
the Speech and Debate Club.
bill, calling him a great per“My students convinced me
former with great charisma.
to perform,” she said. “I like to
She said she held auditions
keep my teaching and my rock
for the gig, but turnout was low.
thing kind of separate.”
A couple of people, she said,
Young-Blanchard’s said her
“chickened out.”
rockin’ side is no secret around
See ROCK, Page17
the school, but this will be her
By Sebastian Moraga

Opstad Elementary teacher Dave Brun sits at a table filled with juice bottles and other goodies
during Teacher Appreciation Day at his school. Parent Beth Hruska organized a juice bar for the
Opstad staff.

ics, science and technology.
“The first part is understanding how the components work
together,” he said. “The second
part is how to change things
up.”
As the students advance, the
concepts do, too.
Things like weight-speed
ratios, wheel circumferences and
3.14 become part of their vernacular.
Jack had never built a robot
before, but he had always loved
Legos and that’s why he signed
up with OtterBots.
Sprouse’s son Calvin builds a
robot with the attention span of
a neurosurgeon. His hands never
rest and his eyes never leave the
robot as he answers a visitor’s
question.
“It’s just really, really cool to
have it wrestle,” he said.
The last day of class will double as the robots’ ‘pistons’-atdawn moment.
Only fourth- and fifthgraders may join the club for
now, but next year Sprouse said
he might allow third-graders.
The Lego-building craze is
growing nationwide, with the
state’s first Lego League debuting this year.
The school has chosen a
league team. Now, the team

SnoValley Star

MAY 12, 2011

Teachers plan two-year leave

PAGE 17

Lego
From Page 16

By Laura Geggel
They’ve directed plays, taught
choirs and marching bands, led
student trips to Washington,
D.C., and roller-skated for a
week during class.
Kim and Dean Snavely, music
teachers at Mount Si High
School and Snoqualmie Middle
School, respectively, plan to take
a two-year hiatus from teaching
while they earn their master’s
degrees at Central Washington
University.
The couple plans to move
with their two children to
Ellensburg, the city where they
both earned their undergraduate
degrees and met before tying the
knot.
Dean began teaching in the
Snoqualmie Valley School
District in 1998, and Kim started
two years later, in 2000.
Dean teaches choir and band
at Snoqualmie Middle School,
where he has joked with, taught
and pushed students academically for years.
“Dean is an influential force
and valued teacher, but more
importantly, a remarkable person,” Principal Vernie Newell
said. “It goes without saying,
Dean is highly respected by students, staff and the community.
His impact on student lives and
the strong, infectious and energetic music program and culture
he has created for both SMS and
the community best characterizes Dean Snavely.”
Dean is known for myriad
activities, such as playing the
tuba for the Seattle Sounders FC
band, called Sound Wave, beginning an adult community band
in Snoqualmie Valley in 2008
and taking his choir students on
an annual trip to Leavenworth.
“Understandably, filling
Dean’s shoes is quite an undertaking, but I’m confident that
we will continue to provide our
students with an energetic and
rich music program,” Newell
said.
Kim has an equally musical
following at Mount Si as the
choir and drama teacher. When
she started in the district, there
was one choir at the high school
and one before-school choir at
Snoqualmie Middle School.
Under her leadership, choir
became a daytime class at
Snoqualmie Middle School, and

must wait until the Sept. 2
unveiling of its mission.
Three months later, the
team will present its robot,
write a report about it and
speak about what it does and
why.
In the meantime, the team
gathers money for the mission.
The first fundraiser is Aug. 21

Contributed

Kim and Dean Snavely, music teachers at Mount Si High School and
Snoqualmie Middle School, respectively, are taking a two-year leave in
order to earn their master’s degrees.
it also entered the school day at
Chief Kanim and Twin Falls
middle schools.
Now, the school district has
nine choirs, with four of them at
Mount Si.
“I’m very proud of the work
we put into it,” she said, not to
mention, “the theater program
is going gangbusters.”
Last summer, the couple
attended the Broadway Teachers
Workshop in New York City,
learning theater and acting skills
they could transfer to their students at Mount Si.
By earning her master’s
degree at Central, Kim will be
able to keep her teaching certificate current and competitive.
She said she is looking forward
to working with Central’s
Director of Choral Studies Dr.
Gary Weidenaar.
Both Kim and Dean will work
as teaching assistants and receive
a stipend while at Central.
“At Central’s music department, the graduates are a pretty
integral part of what we deliv-

er,” Weidenaar said. “We’re
looking for people who have
experience, who are learning
while they are here, but are also
sharing their experiences.”
The drama and choral Mount
Si Wildcats are already planning
trips to visit their teachers.
“It’s crazy,” Kim said. “I’m
very excited. It’s going to be a
really amazing opportunity to
work with professors of this caliber and get to make music — I
get to make music, not just be
on the other side of the podium.”
She called herself “heartsick”
about leaving the Valley, but
said she hopes to return in fall
2013. Teachers are allowed to
take up to a one-year leave of
absence. The Snavely duo can
only request one year at a time,
so they plan to request one now
and the second one next year.
“We’re gong to come back
better teachers and be able to
serve kids better than we are
right now,” Kim said. “The path
will be worth it, but it’s hard to
say goodbye.”

Everyone Needs a Little Help
Now and Then...
Stress
Depression
Life Transitions
Loss and Grief
Relationship Problems

Rock
From Page 16
“It’s so different from when
I was a teenager,” she said.
“Everyone was in a band.”
Young-Blanchard’s band,
The DTs (short for The Doom
Towns), has been around since
2001.
Speech and Debate Club
president Jeremy Knight said
having The DTs perform can
help the club in a big way.
“When we do fundraisers,
we make around $100,” he
said. “We are looking for a way
to break out of that.”
The Speech and Debate
Club competes with other
schools statewide and the contests can get kind of pricey,
Young-Blanchard said. Hence
the fundraiser.
The club has not set a
fundraising goal amount, she
said.
“Since we haven’t done it
before, we really have no
idea,” she said.
Knight said he wants to do

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at the North Bend Theater, a
showing of Pixar’s robot flick
“Wall-E.”
Having SumoBots is exciting, as is having a league team,
but Sprouse’s sights are set
higher.
“My goal is to have all
elementary schools doing it,
all middle schools doing it
and eventually have a high
school team,” he said. “There
are $17 million in scholarships for the high school
competitions.”

more than raise money.
“We want the people who
attend to have fun, we want to
fund raise money to keep the
team running, but we also
want to raise the profile of the
club,” he said.
Knight said the Speech and
Debate Club is a small group,
with about five members.
Knight said membership
ranged between eight and 10.
The club prepares students
for the future, YoungBlanchard said.
“It gives them a voice and
a way to express their views
on an important issue,” she
said.
Members learn good
research skills, how to behave
professionally and overcome
the fear of public speaking.
Now, if only somebody
could help her.
“I usually am not nervous,
but now I kind of am,” she
said. “It’s different performing
for your students.”
Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or
smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at
www.snovalleystar.com.

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Two members of Valley Center Stage perform a scene from “The
Foreigner,” which opens May 12. Valley Center Stage presents
“The Foreigner,” 7:30 p.m. May 12-14, 19-21 and 26-28, Valley
Center Stage, 119 W. North Bend Way, North Bend. Check out
this uproarious comedy set in rural Georgia. Tickets are $15 for
adults, $12.50 for students and seniors. Go to www.valleycenterstage.org.

❑ Friends of Snoqualmie
Library meeting, 6 p.m. May 18,
Snoqualmie Library, 7824
Center Blvd. S.E. This nonprofit
group supports the library’s
community role. Pajamarama
Story Times, 6:30 p.m. May 18,
North Bend Library, 115 E.
Fourth St. All young children are
welcome with an adult.
❑ Open mic, 7 p.m. May 18,
The Black Dog, 8062 Railroad
Ave. S.E., Snoqualmie.
❑ Annual Snoqualmie
Library book sale, May 20-25,
Snoqualmie Library, 7824
Center Blvd. S.E. Proceeds support programs at the library run
by Friends of Snoqualmie
Library. For information or to
volunteer, contact
FOSL98065@gmail.com.
❑ Snoqualmie Ridge Spring
Community Garage Sale, 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. May 21-22,
Snoqualmie Community Park
❑ Family Night at Si View,
6:30 p.m. May 20, Si View
Community Center, 400 S.E.
Orchard Drive, North Bend.
Come by for a game of bingo
during the last family night of
the school year. Light dinner
and prizes are included.
Suggested donation: $10/family.
❑ Mount Si Artists Guild
exhibit: Meet the artists, 11:30
a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 21,
North Bend Library, 115 E.
Fourth St. Meet local artists and
see their artworks on display.

Volunteer opportunities
❑ Elk Management Group
invites the community to participate in elk collaring, telemetry and habitat improvement
projects in the Upper
Snoqualmie Valley. Project orientation meetings are at 6 p.m.
the third Monday of the month
at the North Bend City Hall,
211 Main Ave. N. Email
research@snoqualmievalleyelk.o
rg.
❑ Snoqualmie Valley
Hospital is accepting applications for ages 16 or older to volunteer in various departments of
the hospital. Email volunteer
coordinator Carol Waters at carolw@snoqualmiehospital.org to
arrange an interview.
❑ Spanish Academy invites
volunteers fluent in Spanish to
participate in summer camps on
its three-acre farm-style school.
Must love children and nature.
Call 888-4999.
❑ Senior Services
Transportation Program needs

volunteers to drive seniors
around North Bend and
Snoqualmie. Choose the times
and areas in which you’d like to
drive. Car required. Mileage
reimbursement and supplemental liability insurance are offered.
Call 206-748-7588 or 800-2825815 toll free, or email melissat@seniorservices.org. Apply
online at www.seniorservices.org.
Click on “Giving Back” and then
on “Volunteer Opportunities.”
❑ Mt. Si Senior Center needs
volunteers for sorting and sales
in the thrift store, reception and
class instruction. The center is at
411 Main Ave. S., North Bend.
Call 888-3434.
❑ Hopelink in Snoqualmie
Valley seeks volunteers for a
variety of tasks. Volunteers must
be at least 16. Go to www.hopelink.org/takeaction/volunteer.com
or call 869-6000.
❑ Adopt-A-Park is a program
for Snoqualmie residents to
improve public parks and trails.
An application and one-year
commitment are required. Call
831-5784.
❑ Study Zone tutors are
needed for all grade levels to
give students the homework
help they need. Two-hour weekly commitment or substitutes
wanted. Study Zone is a free service of the King County Library
System. Call 369-3312.